The most famous and remembered era of Madonna's career has to be her sex era from 1992. Her mad antics of that year are still remembered by the millions who witnessed it as the world went crazy at Madonna and a global backlash set in. Madonna hit with a triple-threat in October 1992 - her album Erotica, the Sex book and the film Body Of Evidence.
EROTICA
Erotica was Madonna's first proper studio album in almost four years. The album was released when Madonna's reputation was in tatters. She had been many things to the public, but never boring. People had simply had enough of Madonna and just shut her out of their lives. The album peaked at No.2 in both the US and UK, and sold just 5 million copies worldwide, which was an uncalculated flop for her. If things would've swung in her favour, this album would become her masterpiece - her album that sold some 25 million copies, helped greatly by all the controversy. Unfortunately for Madonna that was never to be. Critics bashed the album without even giving it a chance, and Madonna lost a large chunk of her fanbase that damaged her through the rest of the early/mid-90's.
THE SINGLES TAKEN FROM EROTICA
1. Erotica - The first single to be taken from the album of the same name, Erotica was a huge hit all over the world. Deep beats and dirty drums roll perfectly with the sizzling heat of the song. The bouncy jungle boogie-woogie beat is perfectly contrasted with Madonna's saucy lyrics and vocal tone. The song's explosion of orgasmic pleasure and suggestive taboo shocked the world, and hit the No.1 spot in many countries.
2. Deeper & Deeper - The second single to be taken from the Erotica album, Deeper and Deeper was another big hit and hit the Top 10 in most countries. The camp disco beat of the song works well with Madonna's voice, in which she takes the role of a gay male falling in love for the very first time. Superb single.
3. Bad Girl/Erotica (Remixes) - The third single to be taken from the Erotica album, Bad Girl was a moderately successful ballad taken from the film Body Of Evidence. The sparkling tone of the song was different to the depressing lyrical matter and set the tone for Madonna's sombre feelings at the time.
4. Fever - The fourth single to be taken from the Erotica album, Fever was another fairly successful song. Madonna covered the Peggy Lee classic here, adding her own modern 90's dance/pop touch which works a treat. A wonderful disco classic, this song has stood the test of time.
5. Rain/Open Your Heart/Up Down Suite - The fifth and final single to be taken from the Erotica album, Rain was another fairly successful ballad. Madonna was completely different on this innocent love song than anything else from the album's sleazy reputation.
BODY OF EVIDENCE
By 1992, Madonna had starred in many movies. A few were major Box Office hits such as Desperately Seeking Susan, but many failed to make an impression and tanked at the Box Office, such as Who's That Girl and Shanghai Surprise. Another film to add to this flop-list was 1992's Body of Evidence (Unrated). Starring alongside Willem Dafoe, Madonna played a femme fatale on trial for killing her husband by believe it or not, having too much sex with him. The erotic thriller was a complete disaster of which Madonna took most of the blame. Not co-star Dafoe, not writer Brad Mirman or even director Uli Edel.
SEX
Ah yes, the Sex book. Madonna has never been a complete stranger to ropiness, but her knack of never looking back - to her triumphs as well as her disasters - has served her almost unerringly throughout the years. Sex, though, is a glorious topic she has never quite managed to leave behind.
These are the facts: in October 1992 Madonna released a coffee-table A3 book called "Sex." Housed in an aluminium ring binder, it features mostly black and white photographs of Madonna and a selection of friends in a variety of adult poses - casual erotica, bondage, rape fantasy, sapphic, slutty, cross-generational, various fetishes. These were accompained by Madonna's faux-steamy, occasionally droll prose.
It sold an astonishing 500,000 copies during its first week of sale and that was no premature climax. It cost a whopping $50, was shrink-wrapped and enclosed in an attractive silver Mylar bag to thwart prying, non-paying eyes. If she had followed her initial instinct, it would have been circular. What was Madonna thinking of? Of all the rappers in the world, how did she select Big Daddy Kane and Vanilla Ice, even if the latter was one of herbeaus?
The Sex book was originally going to be titled The Rock, but changed at the last minute. For all the criticism that book has received, you cannot forget how well Madonna succeeded. When the dust finally settled, a $50 book in an aluminium cover, featuring semi-pornographic pictures sold 1.5 million copies. If that's failure, as it was in the critics eyes, then Madonna's entire career was a failure - and no body can deny her impact over the past two decades.
When shooting for the book began, Madonna employed only the best team that she could trust, under conditions of ludicrous secrecy. Madonna and Steven Meisel, the chosen photographer, took more than 25,000 erotic pictures in New York and Florida during the winter of 1991 and the spring of 1992 respectively. The media's interest in the book was disingeneous, although much of the backlash was due to Warner Books' crazy edict banning advance copies from being reviewed. The reviewers prefer not to be shocked though - the biggest taboo of all though was to admit being aroused by the whole affair. Few took trouble to read the disclaimer on the second page where Madonna declares, "This book is about sex. Sex is not love. Love is not sex. But the best of both worlds is created when they come together. Nothing in this book is true. I made it all up."
The backlash of the book hit Madonna where it hurt. Madonna being Madonna was unrepentant claiming that people resented seeing a woman in control. She then later stated than people think she regretted putting out the Sex book - she didn't. She continued by saying that the problem was putting out the Erotica album at the same time. She loved that record and it was overlooked. Everything Madonna did for the next few years was dwarfed by the book.
So there it is, everything you ever needed to know about Madonna's Sex era!
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